Heliqiong Sun began playing the piano when she was 4. Ten years later, it’s the instrument she’s most proficient with.

But Sun, an eighth-grader at Beaver Lake Middle School, has some versatility. She picked up the violin three years ago, and has mastered it enough that she can be considered among the best violinists in the state for her age group.

Photos by Neil PiersonNamed to the Washington Music Educators Association All-State Orchestra were (from left, during recent school rehearsals) Beaver Lake Middle School violinist Heliqiong Sun.

She was among 58 middle-school students from the Issaquah School District selected for the Washington Music Educators Association’s Junior All-State groups. Students from across the state converged Feb. 15 in Yakima, and they spent several hours rehearsing before the three choirs, two bands and one orchestra took the stage that evening for their performances.

Liberty’s fall sports underclassmen take the stage

By Greg FarrarLiberty High School freshmen varsity athletes, swimmer Sydney Hartford, cross country twin sisters Brigette and Kelsey Takeuchi and football player Noah Pritchett, stand by a poster in the Liberty High School commons proclaiming ‘We Are One,’ the motto of Patriot athletes and their student body fans.

Less than a year ago, Brigette and Kelsey Takeuchi, Sydney Hartford and Noah Pritchett roamed the halls at Maywood Middle School.

Fast forward to their first year at Liberty High School. Three of them have competed among the top athletes in the state, while the fourth has found a place on a varsity squad that rarely makes room for freshmen.

The last time Maywood Middle School science teacher Marla Crouch traveled Alaskan waters, she was on a cruise ship. She headed north once again June 8, but this time she will be living aboard a different vessel.

Crouch joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Teacher at Sea program, allowing her to spend about three weeks aboard the Oscar Dyson, where she will study Pollock, a type of fish, alongside NOAA scientists.

Marla Crouch

“Just living and working with these scientists, I expect to get a great deal of information I can share with my students when I return,” she said.

Joanna Moreira, Liberty High School sophomore (right), wrestles her opponent at the Auburn Mountainview Girls Tour in December. By Laurel Bluhm

Just a day before competing in last year’s Mat Classic, Liberty High School wrestler Joanna Moreira stood high up in the rafters of the Tacoma Dome and stared down at the 12 perfectly placed mats laid across the floor.

The Issaquah School Board approved nearly $72,000 worth of changes to the construction projects at Maywood Middle and Challenger Elementary schools during the board’s Nov. 28 meeting.

Eight changes were made to Maywood’s building project and add up to $64,681 before taxes. The most expensive item on the list is $51,000 for additional underdrains for the softball field. According to the change order, the softball field contains large areas of poor draining fill soil. The $51,000 price tag does not include the cost of any impact to landscaping work.

Maywood Middle School reported a case of pertussis, or whooping cough, Dec. 10.

Whooping cough is a bacterial illness that may begin with symptoms similar to the common cold (runny nose or scratchy throat) or simply a dry cough. The cough usually becomes worse over one to two weeks. Fever is minimal or absent. Most recover without any complications, but for infants, whooping cough can be life-threatening.